From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



might be the unassimilated * representation ' of the Self 

 in a preceding life. . . . 



Among secondary personalities mediumistic per- 

 sonalities should be placed in a distinct class. By their 

 self-activity, their originality, their permanence, and 

 their definite affirmations as to their origin, and finally 

 by the supernormal powers they sometimes manifest, 

 they must be made the subject of a special and separate 

 study. We shall consider them last. 



9. THE MODALITIES OF INTELLECTUAL WORK 



GENIUS 



Ordinary intellectual work is essentially the result 

 of close collaboration between the cerebral and the 

 superior psychism. 



In the normal man during waking hours, the two 

 psychisms are fused, united, and homogeneous, and 

 their output is regular, but limited as to quality by the 

 cerebral capacity. The superior faculties are manifest 

 only by innate proclivities, general capacity, and 

 individual character. 



During the repose of the brain the superior psychic 

 activity persists, but it is not perceived or remains 

 entirely latent. Its action is manifest however in the 

 well-known mechanism of subconscious elaboration, 

 which is wrongly attributed to automatism of the 

 brain. This latter automatism only produces ordinary, 

 incoherent, and futile dreams of a commonplace kind. 



Logical, coherent dreams, and those which show 

 genius, are due to accidental repercussion on the cerebral 

 psychism of the superior psychism which is always active, 

 though unperceived. 



We may place reverie side by side with dreams. 

 Reverie means the relaxation of all intellectual effort 



258 



